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Thanks for stopping by. I hope you had a chance to read my previous entry, it might interest you. Now you can learn how to dominate Google with Pay Per Click!

Back to this entry… The other night I was hanging out with some friends and we were talking about MLM. This guy started recommending a few books to me that are Must-Reads. One of them was Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to win friends and influence people’. He told me “I know it sounds pathetic, but it’s not, it’s a really good book!” and I totally believed him. Isn’t that what this whole new wave is about? Promoting You, Inc. and be known online? Well yes! And this book was published in 1936. People already knew about the power of influence.

The book has 4 chapters, below is a summary of each. Maybe this will draw your attention, and you might want to read the book in its entirety. Keep going and you’ll fine a download link at the end 😉

This book is a must if you are looking to develop your personality and your influence on others. And it’s not useful only from a business point of view, but also from a social one. This can actually help you open up to others, and become a better listener.

If you are into Network MArketing then you must know Mr. Mike Dillard. If you don’t, then this should interest you even more!
Mike Dillard is an MLM expert who has revolutionized this industry with his several courses:

There’s real value behind this and I’m certainly picking up my copy on that day!

Now, I’m going to focus on this new little jewel. As you all may know there are plenty of ways to promote your business online: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Social Media in general, Aweber, e-mail newsletters, ezines, blogs, websites, etc, etc. However, Mike claims that the most powerful strategy, the one he uses most is Pay Per Click. Yes, it does sound very simple compared to all the others. They are all unbelievably powerful, but they take longer to bring results. On social media, in order to succeed you need to build a reputation and a “fan base”. You need to become someone known, and position yourself in people’s minds. This takes time, but once it occures it can be very powerful and effective.

However, since not all of us have time to be on Facebook or Twitter 24/7 to build that reputation faster, there are quicker techniques such as PPC. According to most Marketing Experts, PPC proves to be the most powerful tool out of them all. Why? Because you get instant exposure when the person is looking for the keywords you are promoting. For example, let’s say I want to promote my Layne Staley website (by the way, if you’re an Alice in Chains or Layne Staley fan, you are more than welcome to join us here) with PPC. I would have to manage to use the right combination of words to get the most attention everyone someone enters the keywords “Layne Staley”. Some people manage to have their Layne Staley site amongst the first results, because they are receiving plenty of traffic and have managed to optimize their presence on Search Engines. But if your website is not amongst those first results, then you can get on that ambitioned right side, or even on the top.

Pay Per click gives you the power to appear on the sponsored areas of the search results. That’s how you dominate google: you’re either amongst the first 10 results, or you are amongst the top sponsored results. And Pay Per Click domination is going to teach you not only how to do this, but how to actually draw people’s attention, and use the right keywords to get targeted traffic to your websites.

A lot of people are already using PPC but they’re not using it correctly. They’re spending money on these ads, yet no targeted traffic is being directed to their sites.

So, if you would like to be a part of this and learn the most effective ways to use PPC, then you cannot miss out on this chance.

Simply gohere and sign up for your Free videos and be ready for the official launch on January 19th.

Today I received a huge amount of applications to our Company. When you have to look at so many CVs a day, you can’t help but think “Jesus, who taught this person how to write up a CV? This is terrible!” or “Wow this person seems amazing for the opening we have”. So, I decided to write an entry focusing on some tips for you to improve your CV and get more interest and more calls when applying to a job.

Tip number 1 – Less is More

No, I’m not talking about make up. When people add information about their academic background to their CV, many of them commit the following mistake: they include every useless seminar they have attended, where they did their Kindergarten, and even where they were taken for day care . Well ladies and gentlemen, this is completely Irrelevant! When speaking about your Academic Background, provide only the information that will be useful for a job. How do you know what’s useful? When looking at your CV, people will not care about your kindergarten, or about a seminar about wine catering that has nothing to do with your career. Several companies will not even care about your High School years. What matters the most here is your professional degree, what your thesis was about if it applies, and any seminar that added value to you as a professional, and anything that sets you apart from the crowd.

This tip also applies to your Work Experience. Here’s a big mistake that I’ve seen on several CVs. People just add everything and anything they have ever done, from handing flyers or promotional material on the streets, to selling cosmetics, to wrapping up Christmas presents for a department store, to holding a managerial position. Well, let me tell you something. Think about the type of job you are applying to. If you are looking for a serious job, then dismiss the experience you have in babysitting kindergarteners. It will not give a good impression. If you are applying to a summer job where you have to promote a product or hand flyers on the streets or near beaches, then add your previous experience in this field. You may have years of experience in babysitting and sales, but if you’re applying to a company that has no interest in this experience, it’s better that you remove it. It’s very likely that the HR executive in charge of recruitment will overlook your relevant experience if it gets lost within the irrelevant one.

Tip number 2 – Highlight your skills

During my experience in recruitment, I have also noticed how some people never put any special highlight on their skills. What do I mean by this? People limit their information to adding their work experience and their academic background. You should always focus on any particular skills you have that make you good at what you do, be it leadership skills, programming skills, people management skills or language skills. Perhaps you studied art, but you are really good at using financial software, and not just photoshop. Now, don’t take this tip to extremes. If you’re an Engineer, then the fact that you can use MSN Messenger well is irrelevant. Think about your previous experience and what you did best at. Perhaps you were really good and handling pressure and respecting deadlines. Maybe you had good communication skills and always managed to convey the information to your clients and supervisor. Or perhaps you were really good at problem solving and trouble shooting. There is always something to highlight that can interest an employer. Again, don’t go to extremes and highlight things that make you a better professional and a better person.

Tip number 3 – Sell Yourself

This tip has proven to bring great results. People will reconsider your CV even if it has been rejected on a first round. How do you sell yourself? One very effective way is by adding a cover letter. A cover letter should include the following themes:

Provide brief professional information . This includes your profession, your postgraduate degrees, and a brief on your previous work experience. Don’t go deep into detail here, as that should be covered in your CV.

Explain why you are applying to this position and why at this company. It’s important to modify your cover letter depending on the job/company you are applying to. Having a standard cover letter that you can modify would be the best option. Show the recruiter that you have done some research on their Company by explaining what motivated you to apply there.

Highlight previous achievements. Again, you shouldn’t go deep into detail here, leave that for your CV, but be sure to highlight your greatest achievements at other organisations with relevant characteristics.

Tell them how you’d add value to their organisation. Provided you have done research on the Company, be sure to show them how You could be an asset to them. You can back this up with your previous experience, achievements or your background. Be sure to elaborate on what motivated you the most to apply, mentioning personal and professional reasons.

Finish the letter with a strong argument as to why they should pick you. Maybe you have previous experience in the field; maybe you have the qualifications they require, or perhaps you are a loyal and perseverant leader. Show them that they will not find the qualities you possess in every applicant. Show them why they should call you up for an interview, even if you don’t end up getting the job.

Cover letters are important, but try to keep them short and interesting. One page is more than enough. If it’s too long and complicated, the recruiter will skip through it and might miss out on important details about you. So be sure to catch their attention from the start.

Tip number 4 – Contact information and References

Believe it or not, I have received CV’s from people who fail to provide a phone number and an e-mail address. Always put this information on the first page, either on the header or on the first paragraph. A phone number and a valid e-mail address is crucial if you wish to be contacted, as smoke signals aren’t very popular these days.

Professional references are always welcome. It’s not necessary that you provide a huge list of contact details for people you’ve been involved with professionally in the past, but two or three names and e-mails would suffice. You can also finish your e-mail with “References upon request”, and always have your list of verified references handy. Don’t include friends and family, as their opinion on you will be biased. If you don’t have previous work experience, then you can always provide information about your teachers and tutors at University. They will be able to highligh your skills and your performance while you were a student. This can help you in your initial quest.

Tip number 5 – Don’t add a photo

Although it has been prohibited in some countries to add or request a photo on a resume, some people still include them voluntarily. Unfortunately, and to their dismay, a photo can ruin a good CV. I have seen CVs with the most awful photos, and as they say “an image is worth a thousand words”. If you appear half naked or drinking at a party on this photo, it doesn’t matter how good the CV is if you are causing the wrong impression. I have received CVs where girls put full body pictures, as if they were posing for a magazine or something. Some people add angry photos that look as if they had just come out of jail. Now, I always try to ignore any prejudice when looking through a CV, but you might not be as lucky with other people. Don’t add a photo unless it’s a very professional one. You should ideally be dressed up, and the photo should be taken at a studio. Don’t smile too much, but don’t look angry either. Look professional without missing the You aspect. Again, it’s better not to add a photo at all, but if you feel the need, be careful.

Tip number 6 – Don’t add salary expectations.

This is also a very important aspect that you cannot miss. Adding salary expectations, especially when they are high, can mislead the reader. You have to be open to negotiate and always focus on your career growth more than the money you expect to make. Usually when I get a CV with high salary expectations I don’t contact the person, unless they are applying to a role where the salary requested is within the range. Be realistic and don’t overrate yourself. However, low salary expectations can also be misleading. If I receive a CV from a good professional who expects a very poor salary, it makes me think that they don’t value their own work. This is why my best advice is not to include them in your CV at all. They will be discussed in due time during the interviews. Don’t risk not being contacted because of this detail.

Well my friends, this are the first tips I’m giving you. I hope you can use them wisely, and be sure to comment after reading! Stay tuned for more on my next entry. I will also include a few interview tips.

A couple days ago I posted an entry about Twitter. I said I’d be posting more shortly, so I’m back here again.

I was doing some research on Twitter the other day and found out that there is a book written about it, and it’s called “Twitter Means Business… How microblogging can help or hurt your Company” by Julio Ojeda-Zapata. Now if you’re interested in purchasing this little eBook, do a little search on Google and it will show up as the first result. I’m not adding a link on my entry because when I do that, a small yet very annoying paragraph promoting the book appears at the bottom of my post, which messes up the layout and format. As you can see, the format of my entry is still MESSED UP because I added that link. So I apologise, as I was not able to fix this, no matter how many times I erased and reposted. I would have to type everything up again!

I haven’t purchased it myself (and after incident I probably won’t lol), mainly because I don’t think it would be of much use for my business. We’ll get to that later. This is not a review on the book, just my personal impression.

Each chapter on the eBook focuses on different corporate subjects, as you can see. Below is a briefing of each:

Chapter One: “Twitter: Why you should care”
Get an overview of the service and learn about its growing relevance to businesses of all sizes. This chapter summarizes the ways firms use Twitter: In stealth mode, as a way to push out information, and – most vital – as a way to start conversations with customers.

Chapter Two: “Five Companies Using Twitter”Dig into five detailed case studies. The famous companies profiled here – Dell, Comcast, JetBlue, Whole Foods and Zappos – have led the way in corporate Twitter use. They use the service in different ways, which shows the flexibility and versatility of this medium.

Chapter Three: “Still More Firms on Twitter”

Chapter Four: “Twitter and Public Relations”Read about public-relations agencies that use Twitter. As the PR industry has embraced Twitter en masse, it is persuading its business clients to give it a look. Firms such as the Graco baby-product maker use Twitter, thanks to advice from public-relations advisers.

Chapter Five: “The Twitter Experts Weigh In”

Chapter Six: “Twitter Tips, Tricks and Tools”Get Twitter basics, then dig deeper. This chapter shows you how to bend the service to your will. Tour the vast ecosystem of services and software meant to augment Twitter. Learn about Twitter competitors like Friendfeed, and how to juggle multiple services.

This seems very interesting, and if I were to get it would be mainly for the case studies and what’s on chapter six. Case studies are one great way to improve your knowledge in Marketing. Success and failure stories are always helpful and you can always take out something positive for your own personal development. Of course, it’s always good to know what to do and what NOT to do. But why am I not finding it that useful for myself? First of all, the book seems to focus more on Companies than individuals. Being in the Network Marketing busines, I am more interested in branding oneself than branding a Company. We need tools that help promote ourselves as a Brand, and as valuable people to the World. a Company doesn’t need this, and we don’t want to give it to them, especially not for free. Then again, they keep getting more and more ways to get free exposure, which is not bad at all. My point is, this book doesn’t seem to be focusing on self branding, but on corporate branding. At this point, I guess we can expect a Twitter book on self branding real soon.

I have learnt several branding techniques in my career, as well as on the internet over the last year. They come from different sources and in different forms. The idea of putting them all together in one eBook certainly haunts my mind from time to time 🙂 I might do that when I get a chance.

Back to Twitter, as I have mentioned before, value is the key word. And you also need to have a theme. For the last few days I’ve realised that depending on the description I write about myself (on my twitter profile) I get more or less followers. Now, most of these followers seem to be adding me so that I follow them in return. I have come across a few people who follow me because they truly care to connect with me for who I am and for what I acn bring to their lives. Those are the type of people You want to attract to you, not the ones who are simply looking to expand their network, so that they have more people to spam. Not the type of people who follow you because they want to add you to their mailing lists so that they can spam you even more. Those are the people who are still doing Network Marketing the Wrong way. And you don’t want to associate with those people. If anything, you want to teach those people the right way to do things. That’s one of my goals with this blog. I want to reach more people soI can help more people. I find more value in Giving rather than Receiving.

You know what the problem is with most people doing business on the Internet? All they care is about making money and reaching Financial Freedom as they call it. Money isn’t everything. And the reason why so many people are failing is not because they’re doing things wrong, they just have the wrong focus. Let me explain. when you want something so bad that it’s all you think is abotu getting it there’s a big chance it will not happen. I have learnt by experience and from wise people in this world, that in order to get what you want, you must not focus on the lack thereof. You should always live as if you had everything you need. If you need money, Don’t Worry about money. When you worry you immediately program yourself, and remind yourself that you lack money. Hence… what do you think will happen? You will continue to lack it; because when we claim that we need something, we declare ourselves in a state of Need. When you build your business, either online, or anywhere, always focus on success and always remember that you already have everything you need. This is how you will attract Good to your life. It’s true, you already have everything you need… we just take too much for granted in this life. And this is a lesson for life too, not just business. Stop thinking about the things you need, and start realising the things you have.

If you read this entry and you have read this book about Twitter, then I will ask you to please give me Your opinion, and whether I should buy it or not. Right now I am confused, especially with all the ebooks, strategies and sales pitches that are out there. It’s hard to tell the good from the garbage. Again if you have read the Twitter book, please advice. I want to get my hands on some more Marketing knowledge, but these days you have to be very careful. Sort and sift what’s good and aim there. Get rid of all the bad.